Where and When to Buy Ethereum

As the second strongest crypto in the world, Ethereum has always been adamant about becoming a central blockchain hub for all users. Its community is a single decentralized CPU that may possibly change the how the entire world operates.

Ethereum (ETH) allows any developer or individual to create dApps and operate on the platform as long as they possess the native currency, Ether. Several ways of acquiring Ether are around and here’s how you can get your hands on them.

Exchange Platforms

The first and possibly the simplest method of acquiring Ether is through a cryptocurrency exchange. ETH is the 2nd highest by market capitalization and leading coin, following after world’s first cryptocurrency Bitcoin, which makes it easy to locate a local or close by exchange offering Ether.

Initially, registration with a platform is required. Ensuring that an exchange operates legally and accepts any cryptocurrency you may want to work with is also very important. Registration itself is usually simple and takes no time. While attempting to withdraw or deposit assets, intricate background and ID checks may occur. Additionally, a proof of address (POA), as well as photographic verification, will happen under KnowYourCustomer and Anti-Money Laundering laws.

Once all verification and registration have been completed, the exchange will offer several ways of depositing assets. Among these options are bank wire transfers, credit or debit cards, or even popular online payment methods like PayPal. Exchanges often require a small charge to be paid for deposits and prices are often posted on information pages of any exchange’s webpage. Almost every exchange on earth deals with USD and EUR and include many other fiat currencies to operate with.

Depending on what cryptocurrency exchange you choose, deposit transactions can take a few hours to process at the very least. Once any currencies have been deposited into a confirmed account, a user can start trading on the exchange. Additionally, each exchange continuously updates their website with all trading information one requires like the current price of a coin, market cap and more.

Purchase Through Cash

Apart from its already anon-nature, some traders may prefer buying ETH anonymously to avoid tedious KYC and AML laws and jump right into trading. Although a less favored and looked down on method of acquiring ETH by platform providers, P2P exchanges like LocalEthereum.

The P2P exchange provides OTC fiat trading for ETH for customers. LocalEthereum is also a fully decentralized exchange and makes it easier to simply pay for the Ether you want in hard cash. Similar to any online markets like eBay for example, LocalEthereum makes the process of acquiring the crypto much easier. Trading becomes an automated process as soon as an offer is accepted.

Of course, no similar transaction is free of charge these days. Exchanges selling currencies will often charge a fee of around 0.25% while those purchasing will be required to pay around 0.75 percent and is still much cheaper than your usual exchange rates.

Since cryptocurrency miners are responsible for ensuring the correct amount and logging down the activity on a blockchain, it may take a few hours since they also receive the transaction fee. However, by choosing another and more expensive fee, miners may be motivated to process your transaction faster.

Another solution by LocalEthereum is personally meeting a seller and purchasing Ether for cash directly. It is highly recommended to meet somewhere public and prepare yourself fully during any of these personal meets. Also, an online connection is required to seal the deal. While meeting a stranger in the real world may concern many, several crypto-related meet-ups occur, gathering together many individuals looking to trade, sell and buy crypto. Not only does an individual purchase Ether safely in these situations, but more knowledge on the subject is acquired through the involved individuals.

As of now, P2P trading is the safest, secure and most anonymous way of trading ETH around. There is no hard cap on purchasing or selling Ether either through this method, although given the anonymity, trust is more valuable than the Ether itself.

ATMs Everywhere

Unlike large investors or massive ETH holders, another method of acquiring Ether is through designated ATMs. These machines are often a simple and direct way of purchasing Ether in small to regular amounts as opposed to biggest trades and purchases through exchanges. ATMs also bypass KYC and AML requirements due to the controlled and small amounts of crypto they offer.

To use any of these ATMs, a digital wallet is required. After a wallet has been installed and set up, any ATM offering Ether can be used. Transactions will begin by scanning the QR-code of a wallet, deposit hard cash into the ATM and acquire the chosen amount of Ether. It works just like any traditional ATM today although it may take anywhere from half an hour to many hours for a transaction to be fully completed.

Storage & Wallets

Before jumping into the ETH acquisition scene, understanding how digital wallets work is essential. Many different types of wallets exist as of today, including phone applications, physical custom wallets, applications for a desktop computer or laptop and even distributed wallets by an exchange. Ethereum itself offers their own wallets for any eager customer.

Also keeping in mind is that full-node wallets can be downloaded, although this entails downloading the entire ETH blockchain to the app, often huge in size and may take some time to download, or a simple client which is highly recommended for newcomers since it does not require a full download of the blockchain.

Sadly, new attacks and hacks on cryptocurrency exchanges are continuously happening. It makes custom wallets offered by exchanges less reliable albeit how easy it is to acquire and set them up. So, other methods of managing a wallet much better and safer.

This, however, does not mean that alternative wallets are completely secure as many precautions are still recommended to ensure the safety of your account and assets. For example, a wallets private key, aka a password, is incredibly important to keep somewhere safe and secure. Should the password somehow be misplaced or stolen, there is absolutely no other way to access a wallet and all funds are gone forever.

For those looking to harbor bigger amounts of Ether, hardware wallets provide even more security since all assets, keys, and the information is stored safely and offline. This method cuts off cybercriminals, the most notorious kind in relations to crypto and blockchain. Transactions with Ether usually take less than 30 seconds to go through and confirm legitimacy and any information will be displayed on the blockchain for anyone to view. Although only a user’s address and transaction amount will be displayed.

ETH and ETC

Ethereum Classic and Ethereum were divided from the original platform after a multi-million-dollar hack. Essentially, both ETH and ETC operate on separate blockchains derived from the original. ETH had several new rules and regulations added to protect itself from future attacks and a large chunk of users, dApps and developers moved onto this platform.

Around 10% of remaining users chose to stay on ETC. Those that stayed were dedicated to the principle of coding and support the unchangeable nature of ETC. Although both blockchains and their resident users have joined forces before to deal with the worst cyber-attack seen in this age.

ETC struggles in that it offers no backward compatibility with the hard fork and any updates introduced into ETH cannot operate on ETC’s framework. The hard fork itself remains an issue of concern since the common belief is that it occurred once and may happen again. Several criticisms were pointed at the platform, including that its leaders were profiting off the hard fork themselves.

Additionally, the latest ETH platform has seen its fair share of criticism due to allowing users to make heavy shifts and changes within the network.

Never Too Late

Despite being the second most valuable cryptocurrency among the top ten, Ethereum is still undergoing heavy development. If Ethereum achieves its core mission of becoming a world computer and facilitating small payments without restricted border interactions and trust being an issue, one always has time and room to invest.

With the development provided on the regular, ETH is bound to continue climbing in value. However, it is important to keep in mind that at the end of the day, Ether is still a cryptocurrency and volatility is always an issue.